ZDNet Security Blogger Mysteriously Disappears (Bulgaria. "pro-Western views.")

PC Magazine ^ | January 14, 2011 | Chloe Albanesius

[decimon]

The Zero Day blog team at ZDNet are asking for help in finding one of their writers, Dancho Danchev, who has been missing since August.

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Meanwhile, a member of the malware research community reached out to ZDNet to deliver a message Danchev had provided to him in September. In the letter, Danchev said that he'd uncovered what appeared to be surveillance equipment in his bathroom, which he surmised were "courtesy of Bulgarian Law enforcement+intell services who've been building a case trying to damage my reputation, for 1.5 years due to my clear pro-Western views." He asked this malware researcher to hold on to the information and keep it safe.

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[GeronL]

I just realized I literally haven’t seen or read anything about Bulgaria in a very very long time.

[decimon]

I just realized I literally haven’t seen or read anything about Bulgaria in a very very long time.

That's been a barely-mentioned country for as long as I can recall.

[SeeSharp]

The Bulgarian UN delegation sided with the US on the Iraq war resolution. Then they campaigned unsuccessfully for a US base. I don’t think the Bulgarian police would be persecuting anyone for pro western views. I could see them getting uneasy about pro Turkish or pro Russian views, but not pro western.

[GeronL]

I am activating Wikipedia to learn a little about this stealth country.

[mewykwistmas]

Bulgaria, AFAICT(ell), is torn between Russia (orthodoxy) and the West. Of course they love the EU and NATO benefit but Russia is their patron saint, and sometimes they try to play both sides. Think of a Balkan corrupt and criminally run country, multiply it by 10 and you have Bulgaria. Now almost all heroin to EU run through them (Fyrom and Serbia) and the border with Turkey is wide open. The corrupt police and custom officials have built Beverly Hills like mansion in secluded areas with their $800 /month salaries and the government wont do much about it.


Do a search for Bulgaria corruption and see how bad it is, EU is being ripped off.

[mewykwistmas]

Probably a pro-Russian faction of the police, or most likely the mafia. Pro-Western means cutting down on corruption too, and they don’t like that ;)

[bigheadfred]

surveillance equipment in his bathroom

I'm probably looking at this from the wrong angle, but that just seems weird.

[bigheadfred]

From your pics it’s easy to see why they call it bulge area.

[decimon]

surveillance equipment in his bathroom

I'm probably looking at this from the wrong angle, but that just seems weird.

If they wanted to damage his reputation then...whatever.

[TXnMA]

Probably a fortune in bling in that last photo...

[Gapplega]

Gross

[mewykwistmas]

That’s what passed for cool back then, apparently. New money, and kinda dumb since gold was probably just a few hundred an ounce.

[gandalftb]

No, the wiring and transformer were for crudely installed halogen lights.

Go easy on this story, it is not what it seems to be.

[bigheadfred]

I’m sure that, especially with the announcement of U.S. and Israeli involvement with Stuxnet, that cyber security experts/software engineers are going to be, if not already, some of the most “sought-after” people on the planet.